Nation Close To Becoming Immoral, Cleric Says

BLOOMFIELD — The United States is close to becoming an ``immoral nation'' by abandoning its social compact to help the poor and the powerless, an ecumenical Christian leader said Wednesday.

The Rev. Joan Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ, decried the role the Christian Coalition has played in what she said was the promotion of selfish interests above the common good.

Campbell was the lecturer at the 15th annual forum on ecumenism sponsored by the Christian Conference of Connecticut at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield. The forum is named in honor of the late Catholic Archbishop John F. Whealon, who promoted closer Protestant- Catholic relations.

``I have sent so many letters to the Congress it is embarrassing,'' said Campbell, whose organization is made up of 32 Protestant and Orthodox denominations.

She said the political debate going on in America today reflects ``competing visions for the nation's soul.'' In one vision, America is seen ``as a rich treasure, waiting to be exploited.'' In the competing vision, ``government would promote the common welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for all.''

``Jefferson complained that the republican -- hear that with a small `r' -- civic virtue was losing out to the crass values of individuals pursuing their own private interest. The debates of today have their roots in the arguments of yesteryear,'' she said.

The national council itself has no political agenda, Campbell said, but speaks out of a prophetic Christian concern for the voiceless on the fringes of society and out of a desire to promote the common welfare above private gain.

She said she identified with the admonition of Pope John Paul II on his arrival at Newark Airport two weeks ago for America ``to live up to your dreams. Take care of the poor.''

If the conservative Republicans in Congress are allowed to strip poor people of governmental protection, by the turn of the century ``we are going to face a disaster of such a proportion our minds won't let us imagine it,'' she said.

She said the mainline churches have failed to mobilize their members the way followers of former presidential candidate and television evangelist Pat Robertson have done through the coalition of conservative church people.

``We are all frustrated. There is a need for outrage,'' she said, adding that mainline church people ``are not in the streets as they were in the Vietnam War.''

Campbell made her strongest remarks in a question period after her delivery of two lectures, one on the future of the movement toward Christian unity, the other on the moral state of the nation.

Campbell is among a group of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish leaders that has formed a national ``Interfaith Alliance'' to counter the Christian Coalition.

Legislators ``don't hear our voices very much,'' and organizing ``has to be done state by state,'' as the Christian Coalition has done, she said.

The Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak Jr., executive director of the Christian conference, said he is on an organizing committee for a Connecticut chapter of the Interfaith Alliance.